Essential Websites to Get Informed About Porn

Looking for places to educate yourself about the extensive harms of pornography? The below sites provide a good starting point.

Culture Reframed is the first organization to recognize and address hypersexualized media and pornography as “the public health crisis of the digital age.” Founded by internationally renowned scholar and activist Dr. Gail Dines, Culture Reframed is comprised by a multidisciplinary team of experts and scholars helping to build the public’s capacity to deal with mainstream hardcore online pornography.

Kids are just a click away from hypersexualized media and porn. That’s why Culture Reframed has developed a complete, best-practice toolkit, which will help you raise porn-resilient kids. The Parents Program for Tweens is online, free, and accessible. Don’t wait another day!

COMPOSE Yourself!: a practical guide to help parents respond well when they discover their young person has viewed pornography. Provided by Culture Reframed, the COMPOSE Yourself! model is adaptable for all ages.

Updated legislation and education to address pornography as a public health crisis that increases children and young people’s vulnerabilities to sexual harms

An initiative of Youth Wellbeing Project, IQ PROGRAMS are a whole-school educational package designed to equip kids & youth to confidently navigate hypersexualised culture and other 21st century challenges.

COMPASS IQ and AGENCY IQ are signature programs within the IQ package, designed to safeguard kids and youth in the online and physical environments. GROWTH IQ and SUSTAIN IQ focus on personal development, relationships and holistic sexuality education – foundational skills essential for personal and relational wellbeing.

EACH IQ PROGRAM contains sequenced units that are comprised of 2-3 lesson clusters. Each unit targets topics in a way that is inclusive, current and age-appropriate.

Report cyberbullying
If you are under 18 you can make a complaint about cyberbullying or online bullying. A child’s parent, legal guardian, or someone authorised by the child is also able to submit a cyberbullying complaint.

Report image-based abuse
If an intimate image has been shared, or someone is threatening to share it, without your consent, you can make a report no matter what your age.

Curious about the latest research on internet porn’s effects? Wondering about sexual dysfunction? Escalation to extreme material? Low desire for partnered sex? Social anxiety, cognitive problems, lack of motivation? Your Brain on Porn may have the information you’re looking for.

The Light Project is a charitable trust founded in 2017 by a small team of sexual and public health experts. The project is a pilot project that aims to help youth, their whānau, schools and wider communities to positively navigate the new porn landscape in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

The Reward Foundation are a key source of evidence-based information about love relationships and the various risks of watching too much pornography.

Fight the New Drug – a non-religious and non-legislative organization that exists to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.

Other helpful links

Sex & U: a real-life approach to the questions and issues around sex and sexuality.

Videos

Is free pornography destroying our brains?

School kids today are watching porn like never before. It’s free, it’s instant and it’s having a devastating effect.

New Zealand TV3 current affairs program 3D has spoken to porn users and porn addicts, as well as a sex educator Liz Walker, and a top international scientist who say this new type of porn can actually alter our brains.

Ways porn harms children & young people

Porn is controversial because it’s divisive. There’s ‘Pro-Porn’ and ‘Anti-Porn’ sides. It’s as oppositional, if not more, as any other ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ discussion. – Liz Walker

Pornography is accessible, affordable, anonymous and addictive. A growing number of neuroscience studies show how an overactive reward system can result in addiction.

“Porn is now the most prominent form of sexuality education for many young people; it is shaping young people’s sexual understandings and expectations in ways unprecedented.” – Maree Crabbe

Research suggests that adolescents who use Internet porn have lower degrees of social integration, increases in conduct problems, higher levels of delinquent behaviour, higher incidence of depressive symptoms, and decreased emotional bonding with caregivers.

As the porn industry continues to grow, clinicians report that an increasing number of individuals are seeking out help to deal with sexual and relational difficulties associated with pornography use.

Pornography is linked to increases in negative attitude to women, decreases in empathy for victims of sexual violence, and increases in dominating and sexually-imposing behaviour.

“The increasing sexualisation of children and their exposure to inappropriate sexual content is of significant concern and is closely linked to the occurrence of Problem Sexualised Behaviours.” – Sexual Assault Support Service

A study on the consequences of exposure to Internet pornography for early adolescent boys’ academic performance indicates that increased use of Internet pornography decreased boys’ academic performance six months later.